Five Fantastic Summer Money Reads
July 11, 2016
What if you headed to the beach this summer with a great book that could change your life? Would that be worth a few afternoons of reading (especially if you’ve got your feet up, drinking the beverage of your choice)? I am a voracious reader of finance books, some for the blog and some just for my own learning. Many of them just rehash the same old content – not the books on this list! Consider stocking up on some of these perspective-changing, personal finance page-turners for the summer months:
Pensionless: The 10 Step Solution for a Stress-Free Retirement
Before I picked up U.S. News and World Report editor and columnist Emily Brandon’s excellent book to read, I was struck by the title, Pensionless: The 10 Step Solution for a Stress-Free Retirement. That term, “pensionless,” summarizes exactly where millions of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers find themselves in the age of disappearing defined benefit plans and having to shoulder the entire burden of saving for retirement. Brandon breaks down this elephant into bite-sized pieces, with a chapter each on the ten most important steps to funding a secure retirement and avoiding actions that could blow up that security. Her journalist’s eye for making it clear and simple serves the reader well, particularly her guidance on Social Security and Medicare. Follow her guidelines, and while you may still not have the endangered species of the company-provided pension, you’ll have a solid retirement nest egg.
Smart Mom, Rich Mom: How to Build Wealth While Raising A Family
The other day we received a glossy, die cut, colorful solicitation from a global insurance company informing us of their comprehensive homeowner’s insurance for fine homes. Did my husband want a complimentary lifestyle and insurance review? Wait a minute! We own this home together. Why did the insurance solicitation address him independently?
There’s still the assumption that men make the important financial decisions. In her new book, Smart Mom, Rich Mom: How to Build Wealth While Raising A Family, financial journalist Kimberly Palmer turns that assumption upside down. Her no-nonsense, funny personal finance guide for moms offers wisdom for women in every life stage.
This is, in many ways, a book about being in a relationship while navigating both your personal and your family economy without losing yourself. Palmer takes on some tough subjects with wit and humor, like how couples can split up financial responsibilities, the terror that can accompany a choice to be a stay-at-home parent, and the pull of saving for your children’s college while you are also saving for retirement. Each chapter includes useful action steps to put your decisions into practice.
Feel Rich Project: Reinventing Your Understanding of True Wealth to Find True Happiness
Financial Life Planner and columnist Michael F. Kay, CFP® is out to inspire you to feel rich. He believes that if you feel truly rich, e.g., your actions are aligned with your deepest values, you’ve got a much more realistic shot at setting the right financial goals for you – and knowing when you achieve them. Unlike so many financial authors who offer you the money version of a fad diet book, Kay dives deeply into the way personal beliefs and values drive financial behavior. The Feel Rich Project: Reinventing Your Understanding of True Wealth to Find True Happiness offers 10 chapters of thought-provoking exercises designed to uncover and reboot your beliefs about money. This book is best accompanied with a blank notebook and a good pen, as you write your way to your true north.
As I write this post, my eight year old son is looking over my shoulder, begging me for a new pair of $80 Steph Curry high top sneakers because, “everyone is getting new shoes for the end of the school year.” He’s eight! I’m not surprised, though. Our kids face a tsunami of consumer messages that tell them they must buy something now. How can parents keep materialism at bay?
The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who are Grounded, Generous and Smart About Money
New York Times columnist Ron Lieber, a parent himself, has written a practical guidebook for teaching kids about money and values, The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who are Grounded, Generous and Smart About Money. In it, he takes on modern parenting behaviors, such as giving extravagant tooth fairy gifts or discouraging teenagers from working, as ways parents inadvertently give their children messages which undermine their financial success as adults. Lieber covers everything your kids are asking about: allowances, designer clothing, part-time jobs, cell phones, birthday parties, etc. in a witty and approachable way.
If you’ve got kids or are thinking of having them, The Opposite of Spoiled will change the way you think about your own money habits and what you’re teaching your children. As for my son, the answer on the sneakers was no (despite my admiration of Curry’s talent). He’ll have to save for them on his own with his allowance.
What Your Financial Advisor Isn’t Telling You: 10 Essential Truths You Need To Know About Your Money
Did you know that with a modest income, you could become an automatic millionaire by taking full advantage of your employee benefits at work or that your choice of partner is the most important financial decision you’ll ever make? In What Your Financial Advisor Isn’t Telling You: 10 Essential Truths You Need To Know About Your Money workplace financial wellness pioneer and our Financial Finesse CEO Liz Davidson shares ways to find your own financial security, maximize your employee benefits for your unique situation and practice financial self defense. The book comes with a companion website, where you can find the resources cited in the book, as well as ways to join the Financial Independence Day Community and create your own peer-to-peer learning group.
What’s your favorite summer money read? Send me your suggestions at cynthia.meyer@financialfinesse .com. You can also tweet them to me @cynthiameyer_FF.
